Echo Sports Awards 2019: Harriers Lucan strong with new track
AFTER completing the development of their new state-of-the-art athletics track this year, Lucan Harriers AC were rewarded with ‘The Echo 2019 Club Development’ Award in the Green Isle Hotel on Thursday.
Catering for some 480 members, of which almost 200 are juveniles, the club last year celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Lucan Harriers committee members PJ Hyland, Ursula Eaton, Marie Collins, Annette Durkan and Michael Lee with Sports Hall of Fame inductee and club member Fergal O’Brien after receiving ‘The Echo Club Development’ Award 2019.
While they were seriously bolstered by the provision of a Sports Capital Grant towards this project, the club had to work tirelessly to supplement the cost of the €600,000 project on which they finally cut the ribbon in October.
“It’s been a long time coming and we now have an IAAF-standard track that we can train on” said Marie Collins, Lucan Harriers Chairperson.
“We’ve approximately 200 juvenile members and they now have somewhere where they can train. While the work had been going on, we had been renting and in parks. It made life very difficult, but we’re back home now and we’ve got a facility that we can be really proud of.
“It was great to win the [Club Development] Award. It was great to get that recognition” she added.
Certainly the new track facility has had immediate benefits for Lucan, with the club able to bring on line their new Active Youth Group aimed at children and teenagers between the ages of 8 and 18 looking to get involved in athletics on a recreational basis.
Set up at the end of September, the new group already boasts 70 members.
“We had the plan in place, but we just couldn’t pull the trigger until we had the new track” explained Collins.
The new track is sure to make Lucan even more competitive on the senior stage and allow for the expansion of other initiatives like their ‘Fit For Life’ group.
Yet Harriers do not plan to stand still, and they will soon be turning their attention to the second phase of their new facility that will feature the development of their field area for long and high jump, shot putt and javelin.
